Campaign donations from contractors soar in ’13

TRENTON – Campaign donations from businesses with public contracts rose sharply last year for the first time since New Jersey first instituted pay-to-play reforms nearly a decade ago to curb the influence of money in politics.

Annual disclosure reports released this week by the state Election Law Enforcement Commission show contributions from government contractors increased 27 percent in 2013, from a little under $8 million in 2012 to around $10.1 million. It’s still far below the peak of $16.4 million measured in 2007.

Pay-to-play restrictions, which can both prevent contracts from being awarded to large donors and limit the size of donations from contractors, were first imposed in 2004 and took effect in 2006. Just twice since then did pay-to-play donations rise, slightly each time, before 2013 — 8 percent in 2007 and 3 percent in 2011.

The new report almost certainly understates the increase, too. Every year, hundreds of contractors file their disclosure reports late or amend their reports. Over the past four years, late reports have added an average of $346,000 to the total. If that pattern repeats for 2013, the increase will exceed 30 percent.

Roughly 28 percent of the increased money, around $600,000, went to political action committees rather than directly to candidates. Donations to PACs don’t trigger pay-to-play prohibitions on contracting, though the contributions must be disclosed on annual reports.

“My guess is that in the future, the decline in contracting firm contributions directly to candidates and parties will continue, barring legislation overhauling the law,” said Jeff Brindle, ELEC’s executive director.

Since 2010, ELEC has been advocating an overhaul of the pay-to-play law so that the same rules would apply to the state and all local governments, contractors would have to disclose more information and the maximum size for an allowable contribution would rise from $300 to $1,000.

Brindle said the surge in donations occurred because last year’s elections were the first since 2001 in which the governor, Senate and Assembly were all on the ballot — more candidates, more money.

Nearly 23 percent of the increase went to fundraising accounts associated with the gubernatorial campaign, including $235,000 to the Republican Governors Association, $210,250 to Gov. Chris Christie, $33,100 to Democratic nominee Barbara Buono and $9,000 to Christie’s inaugural committee.

The largest of the donations to the RGA was $100,000 from O’Toole Fernandez Weiner Van Lieu LLC, the Verona law firm where Sen. Kevin O’Toole is a partner. Other RGA contributions included $50,000 from Hesse Construction Co. Inc. of Atlantic Highlands, which does work for the Turnpike Authority, and $25,000 from Capehart Scatchard P.A., the law firm of influential Burlington County Republican figure Glenn Paulsen.

Engineering firms, as they usually do, topped the list of businesses reporting the largest amount of contributions.

Remington & Vernick Engineers Inc., based in Haddonfield, made $529,400 in contributions, which was tops in the state for a second straight year. The company reported over $29.2 million in government contracts, including work for six counties, 75 municipalities, 10 school districts and 17 authorities.

The only non-engineering firm to break up that crowd was the Law Offices of Peter Barnes III, which ranked fifth at $315,078 in reported contributions.

Very little of it actually came from the law firm, though. Barnes, an assemblyman since 2007, last year won election to the Senate, and all but $3,700 of the donations were actually made by his election fund, not the law firm, including $257,000 that was transferred to the joint campaign committee he established with his Assembly running-mates.

Barnes’ joint campaign fund, therefore, topped the list of recipients of contractor contributions, followed by the RGA and Christie’s campaign, which raised a state record $11.3 million in private donations between the gubernatorial primary and general elections.

Other campaign accounts that received at least $100,000 in contractor cash last year include the Democratic candidates for Gloucester County freeholder, Frank DiMarco and Daniel Christy; and the joint campaign fund of Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly members John Burzichelli and Celeste Riley.